If you haven’t already, please take a minute to read our previous post discussing our current blog series and what all you can expect to read over the next few weeks!

Value of Social Media

Alright, to kick things off, let’s get to talking about the value of social media. Words like “follow us” and “like this” are buzzwords that virtually drive the entire online world these days. If you are redesigning your website, you should highly consider the value of integrating your social media channels with the site. Don’t have social media? While we recommend you reconsider your decision, fear not: you can utilize a blog! We can’t stress enough the importance of connecting with your audience on a personal level, and the best way to do so is through social media and blogging.

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It shouldn’t be a shock that having appropriate and relevant content on your website will aid to its overall success. The reason we mention it, though, is because often times people are not quite sure what “appropriate” really means for their brand, and why it is so valuable. With quality content comes not only quality engagement with your readers and target market but also increased search engine rankings for your web content as well. Sounds pretty valuable doesn’t it? Lets break it down more and take a closer look at why all of this is so important.

Consumer Engagement

The first thing you should think about when trying to write content for your website is, “Why do we have this website?” You need to understand what you are trying to accomplish with the site, and then mold your content to accompany those goals. Every time you write copy for a site, you should aim for it to entertain, inform, and entice the reader. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on SEO, if readers are not interested in reading it, they will leave the site. The reader and your goals should ALWAYS be the center of the writing, no matter what you are discussing on the page.

You see this over and over again were a company depends too heavily upon the weight and popularity of their brand to drive traffic to their site. Of course, it’s great that they have established their name or product in the minds of the public. But if you have one competitor who has done the same, and also provides quality written content on each page of their website, you’ve just lost a share of the market for no good reason.

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As 2015 sets in at full force, it’s vital for brands and marketers to have an active gauge on which demographics are using social media. Depending on the type of content you’re promoting, knowing which social media network to use greatly affects the success of the campaign or post. The reason is simple – we all want the greatest reach possible.

To break it down, Adweek lays out each social media network and interaction in a handy infographic. It highlights exactly what age group is using each social media site – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram – in 2015 and what the percent of growth is for each. This early in the year, getting a jump-start on these numbers could greatly improve your social reach as you began to plan campaigns, content, and leverage.
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Primarily due to the ever-present nature of mobile tablets and smartphones, adaptive vs. responsive design has been a hot debate in the last few years. Because companies now need to build websites to work on smartphones, tablets, and standard laptops and desktops, understanding adaptive vs. responsible design is incredibly important.

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First things first: What’s a landing page? A landing page is a page a visitor is directed to after clicking on an ad. It shouldn’t be your company’s home page. Instead, it should exist as a separate webpage with one clear message and purpose, leading visitors seamlessly from the initial ad to a clear call to action, and ideally – to conversions.

Whether creating a new landing page from scratch or trying to rework an existing one for better results, here are a few tactics you can use that have been proven to ramp up landing page conversions:

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There have been whispers and even yells in recent years that with the onslaught of digital marketing tactics that print “is dead” as a marketing medium. However, any smart marketer would tell you that the old school medium is in fact alive and thriving. You just need to know how to leverage its power. Let’s discuss a few features of print marketing that make it more powerful now than ever:

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Thanksgiving is over, and as we skyrocket toward Christmas, it can be difficult to make your voice heard among the clamor of holiday advertising. Online shoppers get bombarded by thousands of advertising campaigns each day, and many of those are dropped into their Facebook newsfeeds or plastered across their Pinterest walls.

A great sale might not be enough to get you noticed among the festivities this time of year, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of options. By getting your creative juices flowing and capitalizing on the holiday spirit, you can make your social media campaign stand out in the midst of all the distractions.

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It’s January again, the holiday spending spree is over for most people, and it’s time for marketers to do some re-evaluation as we start gearing up for the spring. In the midst of the holiday hullabaloo, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in terms of branding and purposeful marketing. So now is the time to take a deep breath, look at your brand image, and determine where you need to step up your game. If you’re ready to kick off 2014 with a smarter branding strategy, start with these five resolutions:

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Have you heard of drip marketing? To give you a real-life reference, the phrase comes from “drip irrigation”—the agricultural process of watering plants and crops with a small amount of water over a long period of time. Hopefully I haven’t lost you yet, because when applied to marketing and sales it’s a lot less boring. Essentially, with a drip marketing campaign, short, quick bursts of sales content are sent out (for example, via email) over a designated period of time. Drip marketing contrasts to bombarding customers with an overload of marketing material that they’d most likely toss to the side, or send right to spam. Still confused? Check out this infographic for ideas on how to launch your own drip marketing campaign.

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In a sales-driven world, it can be hard to remember that the majority of salespersons are not the run-of-the-mill wheeling and dealing sharks you may have heard of. In fact, the best salespersons are the complete opposite. They have mastered what the stereotypical salespeople have not: listening. Yes, you read that right- listening is the cornerstone to building a business relationship. Hell, it’s probably the foundation for any type of relationship but I’ll leave that for a future post.

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